Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition has launched digitally across most major gaming platforms today, meaning a new generation of players will get to experience arguably three of the most important video games to ever exist. It’s something I’ve been waiting to replay for a number of years, and for some reason, I’m going to play them on Nintendo Switch.
Let me start by giving you some of my background with GTA as a series. Naturally, I’ve played the likes of GTA V and even slugged my way through GTA IV (“Niko, let’s go bowling”) but a number of the earlier titles evaded me. I was a Nintendo kid growing up. The likes of GTA didn’t appeal to me until well into my adolescent years. Interestingly enough, San Andreas ended up becoming the first ‘Adult Only’ (18) game I owned.
From there, I spent hundreds of hours messing around in the sandbox world, entering in cheat code after cheat code to spawn RPGs and tanks. Knowing those cheats off by heart was a badge of honour. On the other hand, I’ve spent very little time with Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, outside of brief play sessions at friends’ houses. In some ways, I’m going in completely fresh to these two, which is incredibly exciting.
So why Nintendo Switch? Well, while a number of ports to Switch have been less successful than other platforms (Apex Legends, WWE 2K18, Pillars of Eternity etcetera.), I’m confident Rockstar will do the system justice. Already, it’s been confirmed that the Switch will receive additional features over its competitors in the form of motion controls and touch screen capabilities.
The pleasure of having these games to play in handheld is just too appealing of an option too (even if I may begrudge not going for PlayStation for the trophies). There’s also something alluring about playing GTA on a Nintendo machine, like two opposing forces on the opposite sides of the industry coming together. Rockstar has always been the ‘bad boy’ of the games industry, while Nintendo has always maintained its ‘kid-friendly’ approach.
For that reason, neither play ball often. So when they do, it’s nice to take advantage. Strong sales on Switch could make Rockstar consider more ports in the future too? GTA V? Red Dead Redemption. Who knows! Maybe a new GTA game for the system à la Chinatown Wars. A man can dream.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is available to play digitally across Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5. PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows from today. It will receive a physical release on December 7th, before being released on iOS and Android in the first half of 2022.
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